Field
Various features relate to cutters (e.g., scissors, shears, etc.), and more specifically, to hand-held pull-type cutters that allow a user to cut material while moving or pulling the cutters towards the user.
Background
Conventional hand-held cutters have cutting blades that extend out from a pivot member in a direction that is substantially opposite the cutters' handle arms used to operate the conventional cutters. A user operating such conventional cutters manually squeezes together and pulls apart the handle arms, which in turn moves the cutting blades toward and away from one another about the pivot member, to cut material positioned between the cutting blades. Notably, the user must steadily push the cutters out away from themselves while operating the cutters to cut additional material.
One disadvantage of such a design is that the user's hands or the cutters' handle arms may interfere with the material as it is cut. This is particularly problematic when the material being cut is rigid, such as a sheet of metal, hard plastic, wood, or cardboard, since the rigid material cannot easily bend out of the way of the cutters' moving handle arms. Thus, attempting to cut a rigid material with such conventional cutters, especially when attempting to make angled cuts, may prove very difficult or unsafe due to the sharp edges of the material that have been cut which tend to brush against the user's hand.
Another disadvantage of the conventional hand-held cutters' design is that of safety. Since the cutting blades may have sharpened edges or sharpened points facing away from the user holding the cutters at their handle arms, walking or running about a space while holding such cutters may unintentionally hurt someone.
There is a need for improved designs for hand-held cutters that allow a user to make precision cuts efficiently and effectively. Such cutters should allow the user to cut material, even rigid material, without the cut material interfering with the operation of the cutters itself. Moreover, the cutters should feature improved safety over conventional designs.